Delaware Governor talks fiscal cliff with President Obama

Delaware Governor Jack Markell sits with President Barack Obama, and NGA Vice Chair, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin to talk about the fiscal cliff in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is at right. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Going off the fiscal cliff will impact Delaware. So, Governor Jack Markell joined five other governors at the White House for a meeting discussing potential solutions to the looming crisis.

As chairman of the National Governor's Association, Markell led the group of three Republican and three Democratic governors to the White House this morning. The group offered their ideas on how to solve the financial troubles facing the country, and urged President Obama not to pass the bill for federal programs onto the states.

"We believe that we have some ideas that maybe helpful to the Congress and the administration as they're negotiating out," said Governor Markell following the meeting. Markell highlighted for the President the difficulties states are facing. "Nearly half of the states still have revenues today that are below what collections were in 2008 when the recession began... We've had to make a number of difficult decisions in our states."

NGA vice chair Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin (R) says unlike the federal government, the states can't print money to help solve their financial woes. "We realize states will have to do more with less as the federal government addresses the large deficit and has to make some tough decisions on spending cuts." She says state leaders can be a great source of ideas for how to solve the problems. "Deficit reduction should not be accomplished by merely shifting the costs to the states or imposing unfunded mandates."

Markell says President Obama pledged to continue to allow the governors to have input on the process and a seat at the table.

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